Punjab sees biggest Covid-19 spike with 105 new cases, Nanded pilgrims make up majority

The state recorded more than 100 cases in a day for the first time, as it sees a mass return of pilgrims from Nanded, students from Kota and labourers from Rajasthan.

One of the special buses arranged by the Punjab govt to bring back pilgrims stranded in Nanded | Representational image | PTI

Chandigarh: Punjab saw the steepest rise in the number of novel coronavirus cases on Thursday with 105 persons, mostly pilgrims who returned from Nanded, testing positive for the disease, officials said.

It is for the first time that the state has reported more than 100 coronavirus cases in a single day. With the fresh detections, the number of COVID-19 cases in Punjab now stands at 480, they said.

Pilgrims coming back from Hazur Sahib in Nanded in Maharashtra, students from Kota and labourers from Jaisalmer in Rajasthan are turning out to be the latest threat for spread of COVID-19 in the state.

Of the 105 cases reported in the state, 98 are from outside, an official said.

Officials also said of those who have returned from Nanded in the past few days, test reports of 577 people have been received and 20 per cent of them were found positive.

So far, 3,525 pilgrims from Nanded and 153 students from Kota had returned to Punjab in the last few days. More than 3,000 labourers from Rajasthan have been received at Fazilka-Rajasthan border. The state government has ordered a 21-day quarantine for people coming from outside.

Of the 105 fresh cases, 34 were reported in Ludhiana, 28 in Amritsar, 13 in Mohali, seven in Tarn Taran, six in Kapurthala, three each in Gurdaspur, Jalandhar and Muktsar, two each in Sangrur and Rupnagar and one each in Moga, SBS Nagar, Patiala and Ferozpur, as per a medical bulletin.

Meanwhile, the test report of a 50-year-old woman, who died on Tuesday in Jalandhar, came positive, taking the total death count to 20 in the state.

Jalandhar continued to lead the COVID-19 tally as it has so far reported 89 cases, followed by 86 in Mohali, as per the medical bulletin.

Sixty-four have been reported in Patiala so far, 63 in Ludhiana, 42 in Amritsar, 25 in Pathankot, 23 in SBS Nagar, 14in Tarn Taran, 13 in Mansa, 12 in Kpaurthala, 11 in Hoshiarpur, six each in Kapurthala and Faridkot, five each in Moga and Rupnagar, four each in Gurdaspur and Muktsar, two each in Barnala, Bathinda, Fatehgarh Sahib and Ferozepur, as per the bulletin.

Of the total cases, 20 have died while 104 patients have been fully cured of the infection, as per the bulletin.

A total of 21,205 samples have been taken so far in the state and of which, 17,286 samples are negative and reports of 3,439 samples are still awaited.

There are 356 active cases in the state, as per bulletin.